7 Secrets Of Exercise With Arthritis

Exercise and arthritis are two very opposite ends of the spectrum. Arthritis doesn’t like exercise and if you can find a way to exercise you just might find so comfort in those painful joints.

Exercising with arthritis basically turns up the heat by increasing the blow flow to your joints that ache. Eliminating the ache is the goal of exercise and gives us the opportunity to earn our power of body back to us. No more being controlled by arthritis and isn’t our goal?

I know there are times in a day when your arthritis really hurts and that is not a good time to consider exercising. However, there are times in the day that you know are best, would be a very good time to start implmenting some exercises.

Arthritis wants us to feel horrible all day long. As you know, there are times in a day when we feel better. That is the time when you should seriously consider doing some different types of exercise. Rheumatoid arthritis patients can exercise, which means we should never let the excuse of having arthritis stop us.

WARNING

Please talk to your doctor first before you start any type of exercise program for arthritis.

The 3 main components to exercise and arthritis are:

Flexibility (range of motion)
Strength (resistance)
Cardiovascular (endurance)

I’m sure youre doctor will agree that flexibility, strength and cardiovascular fitness would be beneficial for your. But talk to them first they might recommend an exercise therapist to help you fight arthritis using very specific exercises.

Flexibility is often referred to as Range of Motion (ROM). Arthritis wants your joints to freeze up and not move. The less you move your joints the better arthritis can take over your body. If you want to beat arthritis at it’s own game, then begin a flexibility program.

Mornings are a great time to begin your range of motion exercises. Something as simple as pulling your knees to your chest can greatly increase your chances of getting out of bed without much arthritis pain.

This same movement will also help your hips get ready for a weight bearing day. If your knees and hips are really bugging you, a simple leg lift in bed will do wonders to increase your blood flow before your feet hit the floor.

Any type of bending and stretching is a very good exercise for arthritis. Key point to remember is to hold your stretch and don’t bounce up and down. It’s the slow process of stretching and pulling those muscles that will make arthritis mad.

Before you do any type of exercises, stretching is the critical first step. It prepares your muscles for the activities you have planned to do. Daily stretching is most beneficial, but don’t think you can replace flexibility with other forms of exercise. You need em both.

Strengthening exercises are very good ways to build up muscle around the joints as well as increasing the blood flow throughout your body. It’s that blood flow that really drives arthritis crazy.

Resistance exercises are what you are looking for. Riding a bicycle is a good resistance exercise. That constant pushing against the pedal with your legs will begin to build muscles around your knee joints and many other places. If your knees are bothering you and you have access to a stationary bike, try this.

Remove the seat, sit on the floor behind the pedals and begin peddling with only your arms and hands. This is a two fold process that increases resistance as well as help you build cardiovascular.

The key benefit to a stationary bike or a bicycle, is the fact that you will be able to increase your blood flow to every joint of your bodyand and build strength in your arms or legs. Lifting weights is an obvious choice for a resistance exercise, however there are other ways.

For instance sitting in a chair with your legs bent. Start lifting your legs until your leg is fully extended. Using gravity only, that will help build your muscles around the knees. If you strap on only 5 pounds and do the same thing you’ve really got yourself a good workout. We call this leg extensions and you don’t need a health club to do that.

Another good resistance exercise for your arms is to have them straight out in front of you and by simply bending the elbow bringing your hand back to your shoulder works wonders. Even lifting your arms up and down over your head will enable to shoulders to fully stretch and strenghten. You can add more resistence by holding a 5 pound dumb bell when there is no pain associated with bending your elbow and shoulder.

The cardio exercises that are extremely beneficial for arthritis pain are: walking, biking, swimming. We like to do a lot of walking in water with athletes who are coming off surgeries and progress them along to finally walking and biking. Both build strength and endurance. As you know, cardio exercises are also beneficial to your circulatory system (heart/lungs).

Located behind our town is this hill that I love to walk up. It doesn’t matter how much my back or knees hurt, by the time I’m walking up that thing for 5 minutes my body stops hurting and blood is flowing fast. It’s the blood flow that really helps stop that joint and arthritis pain for me. I also include in my regular meals supplements that target arthritis symptoms and pain.

As we discussed earlier, walking in a pool is also a great way to decrease the pressure on all your weight bearing limbs. By walking in the pool you are strengthening various large muscle groups around your hip, knees and ankle joints. The upper body also moves quickly to help you walk in the water faster.

Personal favorite exercises for arthritis include:

*Walking on flat surfaces
*Walking up hills
*Riding my bike when my back doesn’t hurt and the temperature outside
isn’t to cold.
*Walking in pools
*Chasing the kids (grandchildren) in the back yard

There are a lot of different things you can do that does not require purchasing a membership at the local exercise club. Exercise and arthritis in my humble opinion is a mind set and if you get into the habit of doing some sort of exercise on a daily basis, it will help reduce your arthritis pains. When you have pain, use some other part of your body to increase the blood flow, heart rate and lungs.

You’ll be surprised at how well it will help reduce your joint pain.

Hope you have a pain free week.

By: Bob Alter

Bob is a coach, athletic trainer and a person who suffers from joint pain. Learn more about exercise and arthritis at his website: Healthy Arthritis Treatments

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Snake Venom May Stop Arthritis Pain

By Janet Martin

The next time you see a snake, don’t kill it or drive it away. That slithering serpent may save you from the pain of arthritis.

This bizarre revelation comes from Dr. Naftali Primor, research and development manager for Shulov Institute for Sciences Ltd (SIS) in Israel, who said that certain chemicals in snake venom may help treat arthritis - a condition that affects over 45 million people in the United States alone.

"The scientific team that Primor heads at SIS has identified the chemicals in the snake venom of cobras, vipers and rattlers. The company is using this knowledge to make a potent analgesic against chronic pain such as arthritis, and secondary pain caused by other diseases such as cancer. Primar suspects that the venom has theraputic properties also, but more studies need to be done, according to Britain Isreal Communications Research Center (BICOM).

As early as 2002, there have been reports of people who were mysteriously cured of arthritis after being bitten by snakes. Jose de Casa, 66, a longtime arthritis sufferer from Northamptonshire in England, was cleaning his garden when an adder bit him. For the next few months, he was pain-free.

"After the bite I noticed that the usual pain that I have in the joint of my finger had gone completely and this lasted for three or four weeks. Then the pain was reduced for a couple of months, although it is now back to normal," he told the BBC News.

Primor believes the bad publicity surrounding snakes is unfair, considering that these creatures occupy an importance place in medicine. As far as he can remember, he has always been fond of snakes. Little did he know he would bring back his slithering friends into the limelight again.

In 1986, his friend the late Professor Aharon Shulov of the Hebrew University and Aviv Marx founded SIS that currently produces an antiserum for yellow scorpion stings that is used in many hospitals.

The idea that snake venom might be useful in treating arthritis occurred to Primor in the early 80s when Shulov told him that Russian immigrants used a healing salve supposedly made of viper venom to treat body aches and pains.

Following this lead, Primor set his sights on the Palestinian viper - a common snake in Israel - and extracted its venom. He found that the venom contained about 1,000 molecules of which only four or five are poisonous. He then isolated an analgesic molecule and made a synthetic copy called VeP-3.

"About 99 percent of the venom is non-toxic, which leaves us with a great source of possible drug components," said the 62-year-old snake specialist and biochemist.

With this discovery, Primor hopes to create a snake venom pain-reliving cream that will hit drugstores in the near future. He intends to use the same technique used by pharmaceutical company Merck & Company in mimicking the beneficial effects of the deadly venom without its toxic effects.

"Snake venom has already led to several new drugs used by Britons. Take for example, Aggrastat, a ’super aspirin’ introduced by Merck to prevent blood clots and to help prevent heart attacks in people hospitalized with severe chest pain. The drug came about through the knowledge that some victims of snakebites bleed to death because the venom contains proteins that prevent blood clotting," said BICOM.

"Researchers from Temple University in Philadelphia and Merck isolated molecules from actual viper venom, then Merck built a synthetic molecule to mimic the viper’s anti-clotting effect but without the toxins. Through a similar process, SIS is attempting to create an arthritic pain reliever," BICOM added.

As Primor and his colleagues continue their research on snake venom, don’t make the mistake of seeking snakes and hoping their bite will spare you from the misery of arthritis. You might kill yourself in the process. A better way is to use a non-prescription product like Joint Advance that helps lubricate and repair diseased joints without the nasty side effects of other prescription painkillers.

For details, check out Joint Advance here.

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Physical Therapy and Exercise for Arthritis

Arthritis is a condition that can cause stiffness, pain and swelling in joints and other supporting structures of the body such as bones, muscles, tendons, and ligaments. Some forms of arthritis may affect other parts of the body, including various internal organs.

There are many different types of arthritis including osteoarthritis (degenerative joint disease), rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, gouty arthritis, and septic arthritis. Arthritis can affect anyone at any age. Arthritis treatment often includes physical therapy and exercise. Physical therapy and exercise can help arthritis sufferers in many ways. The primary goal is to improve functional capacity to help reduce pain and fatigue associated with daily activities. Increasing the range of motion of a joint is the primary focus of physical therapy.

Physical therapy and exercise for arthritis focuses on pain relief, and in restoring function and movement. Physical therapy programs may provide therapeutic methods, including physical techniques and activity modifications. A physical therapy program consisting of manual therapy and exercise benefits patients with arthritis.

Gentle exercise helps to prevent bone loss and osteoporosis. Lifting weights is a beneficial exercise for arthritis and for joint support. Physical therapy and exercise reduces joint pain and stiffness, builds strong muscle around the joints, and increases flexibility, muscle strength, cardiac fitness, and endurance.

Some of the exercises prescribed for people with arthritis:

Range-of-motion exercises (stretching or flexibility exercises)
Strengthening exercises
Water exercises
Recreational exercises
Endurance or aerobic exercises

Physical therapy and exercise helps to:

Maintain normal joint movement
Strengthen muscles around the joints
Strengthen and maintain bone and cartilage tissue
Improve overall ability to do everyday activities
Maintain weight to reduce pressure on joints
Keep bone and cartilage tissue strong and healthy

Depending on the severity of arthritis, a physical therapist may suggest either isometric or isotonic exercises. A combination of manual physical therapy and exercise is more effective to reduce pain, dysfunction and stiffness in patients with osteoarthritis of the knee.

 
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Knee Exercises for Arthritis

Exercise plays an important role in the treatment of arthritis. Read on to know more about knee exercises for arthritis.

The term arthritis basically means a condition that affects the joints, which can subsequently result in joint pain or even stiffness in that particular area of the body. Arthritis affects a person in many different ways. There are many different types of arthritis that can cause damage to the joints, bones and even skin. Seniors in particular, have to be aware of this condition.

There are many pain medicationstreatment of arthritis but expert specialists always stress the importance of exercise and maintaining a specific diet for arthritis, to get rid of this condition permanently. So, how does exercise help to cure arthritis? Is there a specific structure for the treatment of arthritis and how does one begin with such a routine? Well, here we shall read about the importance of exercise and focus upon knee exercises for arthritis.

What is the importance of exercise in the treatment of arthritis?

Exercise is basically important for the fitness of the whole body and mind. And studies have revealed that exercise does help people in many ways. In terms of people suffering from arthritis, exercise helps to reduce pain and the feeling of stiffness in joints. Regular exercise that is planned for the treatment of the specific kind of arthritis helps to improve the flexibility of the body and improves the strength of the muscles. A proper exercise routine when combined with a healthy diet helps to improve the strength of a person from within. A good exercise regime helps to maintain the body weight and increases flexibility of the joints.

Which are the different exercises suitable for arthritis?

Well, basically there are three basic types of exercises that are suitable for the treatment of arthritis. However, it is always better you consult an expert professional before trying out something new.

Aerobics - Aerobic training has shown many good results. Water aerobics in particular, is useful for the treatment of arthritis.

Strengthening Exercises - This type of exercise is devised to increase and improve the muscle strength of the body. Strong muscles are important for the joints in particular.

Range of Motion Exercises - These exercises help to increase the flexibility of the body and also relieves stiffness of joints.

The duration of the exercise routine is something that should be decided with your doctor.

Knee Exercises for arthritis

These are a few basic examples of knee exercises for arthritis. You can try these at home after consultation with your current therapist.

Exercise to be done in a seated position

Sit upright in a straight chair with both feet resting on the floor. Raise one knee so that the foot is raised around 4 inches from the floor. Hold this step for 10 seconds. Lower the knee and repeat 5 times for both legs.

Bend the knee and do this in a way so that the foot moves backwards and reaches beneath the chair. The toe will touch the floor. Hold this position for 10 seconds. And return back to the starting position. Repeat the procedure with the other leg as well.

Exercise to be done in a standing position

  Stand straight and raise the left foot from the ground. Bend the knee as high as you can and then lower the foot to the floor. Repeat the procedure with the other leg. This step can be repeated and you can even ‘march’ slowly to keep a steadiness to the routine.

Place both feet a little apart and place your hands on hips. Bend your knees slightly and straighten them. Knees should not bend to an angle, which is more than 90 degrees. Also ensure you do not bend forward at the waist. Repeat this procedure around 10 times.

Exercise to be done in a sleeping position

Lie on a flat surface. Tighten the muscles on top of the thigh as tightly as you can. Then, pull your toes back and push the back of the knee down to the floor. Now, you need to push out and up through the heel. Pull these back for 10 seconds and try to tighten the muscles and relax for 5 seconds. Then, repeat it again 10 times. Take a few seconds rest in between these steps.

Lie on the back and keep the legs straight out with a flat back. Slide one leg upwards and bring the knee towards the chest. Then, slide the heel down. Repeat this set around 5 times.

With regular exercise, you will feel the positive effects on the body. Always discuss with your therapist about the regular exercise options. Look for regular feedback to achieve the full benefits of exercise for the elimination of arthritis.

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